Fragments of Noir

Friday, 10 July 2026

Face the Fact

" I don't blame myself. You see, Mr Gittes, most people never have to face the fact that at the right time and right place, they're capable of anything. "

Noah Cross -
Chinatown
1974

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Sunday Dog Parade

A kiss before dying, the desperate lurch before oblivion, and the erotic click-clack of stilettos on pavement. Dank stairwells and silent corridors. Closed doors and hidden secrets. You break in and fall into a bottomless pool of black. Cut to a bare light-bulb burning on a current wired from hell. Lying on a steel-framed bed you stare through the bars of perdition at yourself, a wraith in a cracked mirror on the ceiling.

Tony D'Ambra
Noir City Blues
2009

Thursday, 9 July 2026

Even Bad Luck is Some Kind of Luck #162

The Beast Must Die

Comfort of Strangers

Dead of Night

Bad Day at Black Rock

Edge of Doom

Body Heat

I Want to Live

Hard Times

The Thief (1952)

The Verdict (1982)

The Set Up

Public Eye

The Prowler

Mikey and Nicky

Phenix City Story

Nightmare Alley

Rumblefish

Mob City

Odd Man Out

Naked Lunch

Lady from Shanghai

Chinatown

Wake Up Alone

I Wake Up Alone
(Winehouse/O'Duffy)
Amy Winehouse

Wednesday, 8 July 2026

You Sneak Up

No matter how cleverly you sneak up on a mirror your reflection always looks you straight in the eye.

Falling Angel
William Hjortsberg
1978

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Angel Heart
1987

Woman

Woman was God's second mistake.

Freidrich Nietzsche

Tuesday, 7 July 2026

Children in the Shadows #3

Les Diaboliques

After Dark My Sweet

The Housemaid (1960)

Angel Heart

Strangers on a Train

Little Odessa

Rififi

Dance with a Stranger

Naked Kiss

Mildred Pierce (2011)

Que La Bete Meure

M (1951)

Godfather II

La Premiere Nuit (1958)

Cabaret

Devil Leaves His Porch Light

How do the angels get to sleep when the devil leaves his porch light on.

Tom Waits

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Bernard Schul

Monday, 6 July 2026

Fredo

Godfather II
Francis Coppola
1974

To Get Sore

You go into the office and take a book or two from the shelves. You read a few lines, like your life depended on reading 'em right. But you know your life doesn't depend on anything that makes sense and you wonder where in the hell you got the idea that it did ; and you begin to get sore.

Killer Inside Me
Jim Thompson
1952